1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to undergarments for the elderly. In particular, this invention describes a cushioned disposable undergarment that can function as a diaper or brief for the incontinent and which protects the wearer from hip injuries as a result of falls and trauma.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As health care has improved, and as the baby boomer generation matures, the United States increasingly finds itself with many more elderly people in need of health care services. Medical conditions suffered by our elderly, which are already depleting our health care dollars, can be expected to increase, possibly tenfold, leaving less resources available for medical care, with a far greater number of people requiring care. In particular, hospitalizations because of hip fractures among the elderly are expected to increase dramatically over the next three decades. J. Buckwalter et al., Aging of the North American Population: New Challenges for Orthopeadics, J. of Bone & Joint Surgery 2003; 85-A, No. 5.
In 1996, there were 340,000 hospitalizations resulting from hip fractures. Ibid. This number is expected to increase to 420,000 by the year 2020 and to 650,000 by the year 2050. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Online Service Fact Sheet, www.orthoinfo.aaso.org. The rate of hip fracture increases at age 50, doubling every five to six years. Ibid. Nearly half women over the age of 90 have suffered a hip fraction. Ibid.
Hip fractures are very expensive to treat. The cost of hip fracture care has been estimated at between $30,000 and $40,000 per fracture, and as much as $12 billion in medical care and lost income yearly. Virtual Hospital: Aging Begins at 30: 1999: Hip Fractures, www.vh.org. Only 25 percent of those who suffer hip fractures make a full recovery, and nearly 25 percent die within one year of sustaining the fracture. Ibid. The quality of life, particularly among older women, is significantly threatened by falls and by the fear of falling. G. Salkeld et al., Quality of life related to fear of falling and hip fractures in older women: a time trade off study, BMJ 2000; 320: 341-346.
As health care costs continue to increase, health care dollars and services are depleted, leading to the potential for rationing and compromising of health care services. Accordingly, there is an obvious need to prevent and/or decrease the number and seriousness of medical conditions, particularly those commonly suffered by the elderly, lessening, in turn, the need for health care dollars and services and allowing such dollars and services to be allocated to other health issues.
In the context of hip fracture prevention, what is needed is a cost efficient item that provides around-the-clock protection to elderly persons from hip fractures. Studies have shown that patients are protected from hip fractures if their momentum from a fall is broken by grabbing support or by hitting an object before landing. Virtual Hospital: Aging Begins at 30: 1999: Hip Fractures, www.vh.org. Similar results can be expected, and have been obtained, through the use of cushioning materials that overlays the bony structures of the hip and that function to absorb and disperse the energy that would otherwise be transmitted to the hip during a fall or other trauma. S. Patel et al. Acceptability and compliance with hip protectors in community-dwelling women at high risk of hip fracture, Rheumatology, 2003; 42 (6): 769 What is needed, then, is to provide an article that affords cushioning protection to the structures of the hip, as well as a method for obtaining compliance among the target population of regular use of such cushioning article.
Adult diapers are well known and understood, and a fair variety of such diapers are described in the patent and other literature and are commercially available. These diapers are, for the most part, intended to address the social and hygienic needs brought on by adult incontinence. As such, the available adult diapers include constructions and materials designed to absorb human waste and to keep the moisture from the waste away from the skin surface.
While the known adult diapers address the social and health issues caused by incontinence, and in at least one case include padding intended to protect against bed sores for those users restricted to bed, prior art adult diapers do not include designs, constructions and materials protecting the structures of the skeleton, and in particular the hip, from trauma resulting from falls. A primary object of the present invention is to provide an adult diaper that can be worn by the elderly, including those who are incontinent, to absorb human waste and keep moisture away from the wearer's skin, and which at the same time protects the wearer from hip trauma and fractures resulting from falls.
A number of published patents and patent applications teach undergarments, including briefs and panties, that incorporate special padding designed to protect the wearer from injury to skeletal structures including those of the hip and pelvis. U.S. Pat. No. 4,462,115 for example, by Carlson, et. al., describes a women's protective undergarment for volleyball. However such undergarments are not disposable and they do not take the form of diapers. While providing cushioning to skeletal prominence in the pelvic region, the Carlson and similar undergarments are more difficult to use, less efficient, and more expensive, as compared with undergarments that take the form of disposable diapers. Factors such as ease of use, disposability and cost hold particular importance to the elderly. Given the documented increasing high number of hip fractures among the elderly, despite the commercial availability of such protective undergarments, it is suspected that the acceptability and/or compliance of use of such undergarments among those most susceptible to hip fractures is poor at best. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a padded undergarment designed to protect bony prominence of the structures of the hip utilizing a diaper format that is easy and convenient to use, and that is sufficiently inexpensive to manufacture such that it can be used disposably.
Also found among the prior art are undergarments and diapers that include padding designed to protect the bony prominence of some of the structures that comprise the hip while leaving other bony prominence unpadded and exposed. It is well documented that the great majority of hip fractures are sustained through impact or trauma to that hip structure known as the greater trochanter. The greater trochanter projects out low among the hip structures, extending horizontally approximately in line with the crotch. Commercially available padded diapers and briefs, and the padded diapers and briefs described and depicted in publicly available literature, do not demonstrate cushioning means that overlay or that is capable of overlaying the greater trochanter. As a result, prior art diapers and briefs, those described in the literature and those available in the marketplace, cannot function to decrease the number and severity of hip injuries that result from trauma to the greater trochanter. It is a further object of the present invention to provide an adult diaper or brief that reduces the risk, number and severity of hip fracture by shielding or insulating the bony prominence of the hip, and in particular the greater trochanter, from trauma sustained during a fall.